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PAPEKS 



DISCUSSING THE COxMPARATlVE MERITS OF PIIESCOTT'S AND 
WILSON'S IIISTOIUES, 



PRO. AND CON, 



AS LAID BEFORE THE 



MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



BY PROF. GEO. TICKNOR, 



PEESCOTT'S PROPOSED BIOGRAPHER, 



ALSO, 



THEEE LETTEES OF PEESCOTT, 



cojimexding Wilson's historical rese.vrch. 



1861. 






:j 



ROBERT ANDERSON AVILSON. 

A New History of tke Conquest of Mexico: in wiiicn Las Casas' denunciations 
or THE Popular Historians of that War are fully vindicatkk, etc. By 
Robert Anderson Wilson. Philadelphia: 1859. 8vo. 

A book with this striking title, recently published at Philadelphia, in a liand- 
some and imposing volume of above five hundred pages, has been somewhat 
noticed iu the newspapers, but has been received with a considerable feeling of 
distrust. Nor is this to be accounted remarkable. An author who, like Mr. Wil- 
son, maintains that the civilization of Mexico came from Phoenicia before the time 
of Moses, and that all the accounts of the Spanish conquest, usually relied upon — 
from the manly despatches of Cortez down to the marvelously learned and philo- 
sophical travels of Humboldt, and the brilliant and conscientious history of Pres- 
cott — are either wild fictions, or the results of belief in such fictions, can not 
himself, one would think, expect to find his path to general favor very smooth. 

Of the curt and decisive way in which Mr. Wilson sees fit to contradict such 
illustrious predecessors as those just mentioned, or of the details of his narrative, 
and of the discussions by Avhicli he would sustain it, we do not propose to speak 
at all. That ground is Avell covered by two articles in the Atlantic Monthli/ for 
April and May, written with ample knowledge of the subject, and with pungent 
ability. But we wish to say a word about Mr. Wilson's general trustworthiness 
as a historian. The claims he put forth are very bold, and he will not, therefore, 
object to having them tested under the two heads of his fairness and of his learn- 
ing — in other words, of his fitness to do what he has undertaken to do. 

Many instances may be found of his want of fairness, but we shall confine our- 
selves to one — the case of Dr. Robertson, tlie author of the History of America 
and of Charles A^. 

Mr. AVilsou tells us, in one of his notes, that his father had been adopted into 
the family of tlie head of the Iroquois Indians; and he elsewhere intimates that 
he regards himself, in some sort, as a party concerned in whatever relates to the 
honor of that remarkable nation of savages. He goes out of his way, therefore, 
to make an attack on Dr. Robertson for saying that the Iroquois, at an earlier 
period than that in which he wrote his History of America, were, like many other 
of the natives of this continent, accustomed sometimes to satiate their revenge by 
eating their enemies. Mr. AVilson's words are: "Dr. Robertson, Principal of the 
University (High School) of Edinburgh, has immortalized himself by informing 
the world that the Iroquois (the Six Nations) eat human flesli." And then he goes 
on treating the historian as if he had either invented this charge, or taken it 
lightly and without sufficient inquiry, on tlie authority of a "Jesuitical author." 
If he refers, as he probably does, to Charlevoix — a learned and excellent man, 
who was at one time a missionary in this part of the American continent — we can 
only say, the statements of Ciiarlevoix are ample, and that we feel assured nobody 
can read his account of the horrors that accompanied the deaths of Father Brcbeuf 
and Father Lallemant, and their being eaten by Iroquois in liJ49, without being 
assured of its truth. But there is no need of going so far, and to a book some- 
what uncommon. It is only necessary to look into the " Relation," printed at Paris 
in 1666, and republished in 1858 at Quebec, under the auspices of the Canadian 
Government, in order to feel equally sure that, in 1661, the Sieur Brigeart was — 
with circumstances of atrocity too shocking to be repeated — roasted alive and 
devoured by a party of Iroquois, under no pretext of hunger, for they had just 
been making "grande chere de leur chasse." Indeed, there is no doubt of the fact 



that, in the early period of our knowledge of the northern part of our continent, 
the Iroquois, like other of our fierce savages, sometimes became cannibals from an 
itainsable revenge. Mr. Wilson wishes to degrade Dr. Robertson for stating this 
fact in the very mild and cautious way he does, and would have us believe that 
this inost respectable historian has asserted that the Iroquois had continued can- 
nibals when they had been "allies of the British crown two hundred years," 
although both in his text and in his notes Dr. Robertson says that the practice had 
long ceased when he wrote, Avhich was about 1775-1777. Now a person who 
treats history in this way is too prejudiced, or too careless, or too ignorant, or all 
three, to be trusted. He does not deserve the name of an historian. He is the 
calumniator he would persuade us to think Dr. Robertson to be. 

But the task Mr. Wilson took upon himself is not only one that demanded fair- 
ness, but it is one that demanded learning. Had he, then, the learning he needed ? 
We might, perhaps, safely leave the answer of this question to the articles in the 
Atlantic Monthly already referred to, where many instances of gross ignorance in 
great things as well as small are pointed out and exposed. But there is one case 
so decisive, that we wish to note it separately. It is that of Bernal Diaz del 
Castillo, tlie Chronicler of the Conquest. No book in relation to the early history 
of the Spanish invasion of Mexico has been more relied on than his ; for it was 
written by one who claimed to have fought through all its battles, and who, in his 
old age, sat down and gave, in great detail, and with that genuine simplicity which 
is the seal of truth, a history of the whole of it; — one main purpose that he had 
being to correct the accounts of Gomara, which the clear-headed veteran deemed 
too favorable to Cortez, whose Secretary Gomara was. Such a work, of course, 
stood directly in the way of a person like Mr. Wilson, who, in order to maintain 
his theories about Mexico, was obliged to deny all the received accounts of that 
extraordinary event, and especially those of Bernal Diaz. After some considera- 
tion, he seems to have made i;p his mind that the cheapest and shortest way was 
to declare boldly that no such man ever existed; — or, to use his own words, he 
" with much deliberation concluded to denounce Bernal Diaz as a myth." 

No doubt Mr. AVilson felt himself tolerably safe in this decisive assertion ; for, 
to most persons Avho are in the habit of reading Spanish books, hardly anything 
is known of the sturdy old conquistador, except what he has himself told us; and 
ihis is testimony not to be accepted when the very existence of the person is 
called in question, for if Bernal Diaz never lived, he can never have written the 
book that bears his name. 

But there is, happily, external testimony in the case, and enough of it. A fresh 
edition of the old Chroniclei"'s work was published in Madrid in 1853, in the 
twenty-sixth volume of the "Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles," and was edited by 
Don Enrique de Vedia, a scholar who has heretofore interested himself in America 
and in American literature. In the preface to this edition, Don Enrique says, 
that, about the year 1689, Don Francisco de Fuentes y Guzman wrote a History 
of Guatemala, of which the first portion, in two manuscript volumes, was then 
before him (Don Enrique de Vedia) ; that in this history Don Francisco de Fuentes 
says, with many expressions of affection, that Bernal Diaz was his great-grandfather ; 
and that the original manuscript of his History of the Conquest was still preserved, 
and showed differences in the printed copy, especially in chapters 164 and 171. 
These facts Mr. Wilson ought to have known ; for they were published to the 
world six years before he had the hardihood to assert that no such man as Bernal 
Diaz had ever existed. 

But this is not all. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, a French gentleman of 
much learning, has been long interested in the traditions of savage life on this 
continent, and especially those of its central portions. He was Professor at the 
Seminary of Quebec in 1845. In 1848 he went to Mexico, and became connected 
there with the French mission of Mons. Levasseur, and traveled much about the 
country and among the natives, studying their languages and manners till 1851. 
From 1851 to 1854 he was in Paris and Rome, and made careful researches con- 
nected with his American studies; and from 1854 to the beginning of 1857 he 
was in Mexico again and in Gautemala, making fresh and more elaborate local 
investigations. This gentleman, thus qualified for his task, printed in Paris in 
185-7 and 1868, the first three volumes, and in this yeax", 1859, the fourth and last 



of his "Historie des Nations Civilicses du Mexiquc ct dc TAmcviquo Contrale, 
durante les siecles antcriuui'S ii C'liristopho Colonil)," wliifh lie brinies down — so far 
as the native Indians are concerned — to tlie completion of the Spanisli Conquost 
in Mexico. In this worl<, which is full of learning-, drawn from ()ri<;inal sources 
and unpublished materials, it is almost needless to say tliat the Abbe ile Bonrbourjij 
coucurs witli the accounts to which we have heretofore trusted, from tlie time of 
Cortez to that of Prescott; carrying his investigations, however, much more into 
detail than anj'body has done before him. Still he is not satisfied, and is now, 
probabl^r^ embarked anew for Mexico, in order to pursue still farther the sidiject 
Avhicli has so long been with him not merely an earnest pursuit, but a passion. 

On his way to Mexico, the Abbe de Bourbourg lately passed through Boston, 
where we had already enjoyed the pleasure of seeing him in 1854. lie stop^ped 
here only a very short time, and we did not know he was in town until he called 
upon us the day before his departure. But we at once spoke to him of Mr. Wil- 
son's book, which he had not seen, and gave him a copy of it, desiring him, at the 
same time, to put on paper certain facts relating to I3ernal Diaz, which he had 
mentioned in our conversation. The same evening he wrote us a note, which we 
received after he was gone, and from which the following is a translation of the 
portion relating to Bernal Diaz. It is dated Boston, 25tli April, 1859: 

" I have the honor to address you herewith what you asked of me this morning 
concerning Bernal Diaz. Not having my books or my notes at hand, I must con- 
tent myself with putting down from memory what, at the moment, occurs to my 
recollection. 

" Bernal Diaz del Castillo was among the soldiers who landed Avith Cortez at Vera 
Cruz, and remained afterwards with him. His name appears in a great number of 
official acts still extant. It was Bernal Diaz who stood sentinel at the entrance of 
the Spanish Camp when the envoys from Cempoalla presented themselves there. 
In the legal process instituted against Cortez by his enemies, some years after the 
taking of Mexico, the name of Bernal Diaz appears as one of the witnesses for the 
defence. Later he is to be traced among the Spaniards, who established them- 
selves in Central America ; and he was, for many years, Corregidor of the city of 
Guatemala. It was there that he wrote his History, and the autoc/raph mamiscript, 
signed by his own hand, is carefully preserved by that municipality among its 
archives, where J have seen and examined it more than once. 

" His signature is often shown among the signature of the members of the Cabildo 
(the Corporation) of Gautemala, whose records still exist. He died in that city, 
old, and complaining of his poverty." 

Our simple-hearted and picturesque chronicler, therefore, not only had a descend- 
ant in the third generation, who was fondly attached to his ancestor's memory ; 
but the autograph manuscript of his ancestoi's remarkable book, and many of his 
autograph signatures to official documents, officially preserved, have survived all 
the revolutions of the unhappy country, the aflairs of whose capital city he long 
administered. This is certainly pretty well for " a myth." 

But, to be serious, an author who, like Mr. AVilson, makes the boldest assertions 
and then is obliged to run for luck in order to find evidence that he may hope will 
support them; — who has so little fairness or judgment as is shown by his treat- 
ment of Dr. Robertson, and so little knowledge or spirit of inquiry as he has 
shown in the case of Bernal Diaz, can really have no claim to the character of an 
historian. Still less has he a right to speak in any tone except one of perfect def- 
erence, when he mentions such names as Baron Humboldt and Mr. Prescott. 

T. 



PROF. T , OF BOSTON. 

" A New History of the Conquest of Mexico ' By Robert Anderson "Wilson. 
London : Trubner & Co., 60 Paternoster Row ; Philadelphia : Jas. Challen & 
Son. Third Edition. 1860. 

New facts of history can only be settled by a full and fau- discussion ; yet thus 
far discussion has been confined to one side only, and that side the one anxious to 
suppress what the lamented Prescott styled " a great deal of matter quite origi- 
nal." My real offence was that I had written "A New History of the Conquest 
of Mexico," founded *on direct and circumstantial evidence, with speculations on 
the fabulous ages, according to the rule laid down by Lord Bacon, [De Augmentis, 
h. 2, cap. 6). I had ventured, also, as an expert personally familiar with the 
country about Avhich I wrote, to denounce the authorities, on which Prescott had 
relied, as physically impossible; as more intensely fabulous than the Arabian 
Nights or Munchausen's Tales; as the religious romances and pious frauds of 
Spanish priests. 

As the statute of limitations does not run against history, I will, at this late day, 
proceed to defend, not myself, but the truth of history — not from the traverstie, 
caricature, and libel, of Prescott's publishers, as contained in their, own magazine, 

the Atlantic Monthly ; but from Prof. T 's article in LittdVs Living Age, lor 

June, 1859 — heading my article as the Professor headed his, onlj' substituting his 
name for mine, and writing my own in full at the bottom of this article, instead of 
the Professsr's " T ;" for I hold it to be only fair, that a person who assails another 
by name should also give his own. 

The conflicting romances of Spanish priests, written from 50 to 250 years after 
the events they celebrated, had been moulded by the plastic hand of Prescott into 
a history, constituting what Barnum would style a happy family of discordant ele- 
ments ; rather we should liken them to a jayraraid of hearsay standing on its apex, 
to which Prescott's writings constituted the invei'ted base. Conflicting Avith all 
the rest, yet a leading authority, was a putative narrative attributed to Bernal 
Diaz, a companion of Cortez. As an expert acquainted with that countrj^ and 
with the peculiarities of its priests and its soldiers, I pronounced that book spu- 
rious, and its Bernal Diaz a myth — the invention of a priest ignorant of the country 
through which it was alleged the writer had marched, in company with Cortez. 
On this point I could not be mistaken. My reasoning might be fallacious, but my 
conclusion alone was testimony. The rule of evidence presupposing that experts 
do not always know the processes by which their own minds arrive at correct 
decisions. " Give me your conclusions, not your argument," said Coleridge to an 
old woman; and so say all men to experts, who have any practical knowledge of 
the world. Yet the Professor is not more satisfied with my judgment than the 
innocent holder of a spurious note is, ordinarily, with the bank oflicer who pro- 
nounces it bad. He cites against me a Guatemalian priest, to prove — 1st, That 
there was a genuine Bernal Diaz. Who disputed it ? 2d, That he died at Guate- 
mala. Who denied it? 3d, That the MS. I pronounced spurious was among the 
public archives of that city within ninety years of the conquest. Did any one 
fix the date at which tlie pious fraud was consummated? or deny that the public 
officers of Guatemala were scamps ? This course of proof the Professor intro- 
duces, is the one resorted to in courts of Justices of the Peace, when the real issue 
can not be met. 

It may be that "T" is as well known a signature at Boston as "Prof T ;" 

but I confess that when I read the article in the Living Age, at Fort Riley, Kansas, 
I supposed it to be the work of a Jesuit Superior, both from its citing such a 
witness to prove irrelevant matter ; and. second, from the Romish tone of the 
article, while my name was placed in large capitals over the ordinary heading of 
a book notice, for the apparent purpose of exciting prejudice by its broad Scotch 
look. As .though a Scotchman was less likely thari a Spaniard to speak the truth ! 
I was, therefore, not a little astonished, the other day, to learn that the author was 
not a Jesuit, but Professor T , of Boston. 



The only way to overcome the testimony of an expert is l)y other experts. If 
Prof. T wishes to counteract tlie effect of my testimony, let him (pialiry him- 
self by the severe pi'ocess I adopted. But tliis attempt tu sui)pre.s9 uvidei'icc by 
crushing a witness, has met with its just deserts. The publisher who directed the 
persecution against me has himself gone into bankruptcy ; while Prescott's books, 
which were that man's property, have been crushed out uf Boston, and a publislier 
in a distant city has bought them for what they were worth, while my histoiy has ■ 
gone to a third edition. It is not becoming me to rejoice over the fallen, or to 
sneer at "the Mutual Admiration Society of Boston." But I did think it cruel — 
when I was made a laughing stock iu every corner of the Union by the Atlantic a 
false quotations from my book — for the whole literati of Boston to join in the hue 
and cry against me ; and to see a Professor, even, descend from his chair to write 
what the law designates a libel, and that, too, against a witness for bearing unde- 
sired testimony. How different is such conduct from that of the noble-hearted 
Preseott. When I published a small volume of "adventures and researches in 
that country [Mexico,] during parts of the years 1851, '52, '53 and '54," he was 
the first one to congratulate me on my performance ; and, when lie learned that 
the publication of liis letter would aid my publisher's sales, he generously con- 
sented, though, as he expressed it, the establishment of my theory would convert 
what he had " hitherto done into castles in Spain." Such was Prescott's disinter- 
ested love of truth. Yet he was a Bostonian. Other men have mourned in him 
the loss of a friend. But I have suffered more than they all by his death. I have 
lost a generous adversary; one who stood between me and the Ishmaelites. That 
his books are the most fabulous in our language is not his fault; for the means of 
testing the inaccuracy of his authorities did not exist when he Avrote, and without 
evidence on the other side he was not authorized to reject them. But when I 
brought to light a higher grade of evidence, he was the first to admit its force. 
He even suggested the ground on which my history rests when he wrote — " Your 
strong ground, therefore, must consist in the contradiction afforded by present 
appearances, to the statements of the conquerors." 

Yours, truly, R. A. AVILSON. 

[N. B. — I omitted to state, in my reply, that in a country where few can write 
an " autograph MS.," is one that bears the autograph scrawl, or rubrica, of its 
alleged author ; and a forged MS. is one that has a spurious rubrica. 

2d. The transfer of the Preseott books to a Philadelphia liouse, extensively 
engaged in the Southern trade, would have the effect of increasing, at first, the 
sales. Priest Santillan's facticious claim to the mission lands of San Francisco, 
found a ready market in Philadelphia ; and the smallest shareholder in that stu- 
pendous fraud stoutly insisted on the gtni;inenes3 of his "authorities," until a 
judgment of the highest tribunal in the land burst the bubble. Can it be expected 
that the purchasers or sellers of Prescott's books will readily credit the evidence 
of the forged and factitious chai-acter of his authorities ? R. A. W.] 

Dansville, N. Y., Feb., 1861. 



"BosTox, Dec. 8th, 1855. 

"My Dear Sir: — I am very much obliged to you for your new work on Mexico 
and its Religion. In an unpretending form it contains a good deal of matter 
quite oi"iginal. That portion of the worl» relating to the exaggerations of the 
early conquerors, is particularly deserving of attention by the student of our early 
North American annals. You have dealt with a bold hand, stripping off the fine 
robe of romance, and in some cases, indeed, the flesh beneath it — reducing it to 
an unsightly skeleton. The skeleton, however, may be nearer the truth ; but yet 
it will be hard to prove it. There does not appear to be much inconsistency in 
the various testimony of the old chroniclers. Your strong ground, therefore, 
must consist in the contradiction afforded by present appearances, to the state- 
ments of the conquerors. However, this is a subject which I shall examine more 
at leisure — having been able, from pressing avocations of late, to take only a super- 
ficial glance at your volume. 

" Rejjcating my thanks for your favor, I remain, dear sir, 

" Very sincerely yours, Wm. H. Prescott. 

" To R. A. Wilson, Esq., Rochester, N. Y." 



6 

"Boston, Dec. 14. 
"My Dear Sib: — "What I wrote to you was honestly said, and if it can be of 
any service to you to i^ublisli it, you are at perfect liberty to do so. I am sorry, 
but not surprised — since it is your first publication — tliat the book should not 
meet, at once, with an extensive sale. Pazienza, as the Italians say, is the only 
resource when a new book comes into tlie world. 

" HojDing that good times are in store for it, I remain, 

" Very truly yours, Wm, H. Prescott. 

" To R. A. Wilson, Esq., Rochester, N. Y." 



"Boston, March 11, 1857. 

"Dear Sir: — I have had the pleasure of receiving your note of the 9th iust., 
enclosing the preface to tiie new edition of your work. I am very sorry to learn 
that your health is so delicate as to make it necessary for you to make another 
excursion to the South. I should think that in Peru you must find the favorable 
climate that yon want. 

" From your preface, as well as your note, I see you are making clean work of 
the Aztec civilization. If you do as much with the Peruvian, there will be little 
left to stand on upon this continent but a myth. 

" I don't see why you should hesitate in regard to the prosecution of your labors, 
when a third edition shows them to have been so favorably received by our coun- 
trymen. Truth is mightj^, and ^vill prevail ; and if you can furnish the means of 
arriving at it in tliis fair historical question, you are certainly bound to do so. If 
I should not become a convert to ytiur views, it would not be strange, considering 
that I have been so long accustomed to look only on one side of the matter ; and 
that your theory, moreover, if established, would convert what I have hitherto 
done into mere chateaux en E^^par/ne. 

" With my sincere wishes for j'our restoration to health, and that you may be 
enabled to prosecute your interesting researches, 

" I remain, dear sir, very truly yours, 

" Wm. H. Prescott. 

" To R. a. Wilson, Esq., Rochester, N. Y." 

[The above letters are all in the hand-writing of the same secretary, though 
they exactly contradict statements of the Atlantic Monthli/.J 



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